Step 4: Molding It

Step 5: Yay you're done

Well done you now know how to contribute to the environment by making plastics that do not harm the earth. Happy Earth week! and don't forget to vote!...

This is my first instructable so please try not to criticize to harshly.

BioPlastics are plastics that can be made out of common household products. These are to the environment in that they contain no petroleum unlike usual plastics such as tupperware etc. Also instead of taking about 100 years to fully decompose it only takes about 7.

There are probably other instructables about BioPlastics out there, but I made some for a school project so I decided to make an Instructable

Step 1: Ingredients

Step 2: Mixture

The Ratio I mixed with was 1 part corn starch and 1 part water. Feel free to change this based on the use of your plastic.

For a more rigid plastic, add more corn starch.For a more flexible/ squishy plastic add more water.

I mixed them in a sandwich bag.

If you want to add in some vegetable or canola oil (I used canola) and it will help keep it together a little bit for every 2 cups of MIXED water and corn starch I added 1 tablespoon of oil. But of course you can change this based on your intended use of the plastic.

Make sure to get all the bumps of corn starch out you want it to be completely dissolved It should look a bit like milk.

I wouldn't use a conventional oven... The transfer of heat in an oven heats the outside much quicker than the inside. This will cause all sorts of mayhem with the shape and can cause it to basically rip itself in two :(

Decomp usually only occurs when things are exposed to high levels of unfriendly conditions. Basically, keep it indoors. Should be fine for a while. 7 years is a pretty long time to be used consistently for a lot of plastic products.

Good day. I'm a junior highschool student and in our Research subject, every one should pass his/o r her own proposal. My proposal was using shrimp shells as an additive in making plastics. As i browse through the internet, i noticed that your methods are easy so i decided that i will used them and just add the shrimp shells. Do you think it would still come out right? is my proposal possible? what could be the side effects of adding shrimp shells? Thank you. May you reply quickly for i really need your help.

It has recent articles on everything from why certain ingredients matter (e.g. why some recipes call for vinegar and water) to how to get certain types of results (e.g. how to make a hard, water-proof bioplastic in your home). It would be great if you could let your readers know about this resource in your instructable!

What do you think about using vinegar? I saw a recipe that uses vinegar to break up the shorter amylopectin polymers, leaving the much longer amylose polymers and making the plastic less brittle. The process is apparently called "acid hydrolysis". He also uses glycerin for a similar purpose.Here's the video. By the way, I'm really new to this subject. I only started researching it today.

how flexible is this stuff, exactly? i've seen recipes for producing this stuff on the stove, but there have been so many different results.... depending on the amount of oil added, would this material be appropriate for making something like, say, a mold tray? or does it come nicely out of molds?

I put my batch in the microwave, it turned hard instantly, and I couldn't pour it into my mold, I can get around that, but when I make large batches, It likes to break open, like airs trapped inside, how do I get the air out?

The problem is that the surface drys and sets up while the center is still wet. When the water in the center drys out, it pulls the still soft materiel away from itself, creating a huge hole. What has to be slowed isn't the evaporation rate, it's the setup rate...but then you couldn't use it...

I don't believe that's correct. The mixture is high in water content, I'm guessing the starches might absorb the microwaves, too, and there's two cups of liquid in the microwave. Outside regions would probably heat up first.

This sounds really awesome and useful, could you be more descriptive possibly of the end result material? I am making large pieces of a game board and would like to use something like this. The way you described it, they are not very heat resistant? Can they be milled, sanded, shaved, drilled ect after they are dried?